FLR(M) nightmare!!!

Woah woah woah, what is this???
So I’ve paid my fees thinking I was sending off my application tomorrow. Now the earliest biometrics appointment I can get (which is an unexpected £125 extra!) isn’t until the 4th of August!

So my questions are - 1 what am I meant to be uploading??? I thought I was mailing this! I think I may have paid for an enhanced appointment (had no other choice) so I’m reading online they might scan this for me at the appointment? Is that right??

2 - do I have to update all of my letters from employers and stuff because now the dates will be older than 28 days!

3. I’m meant to be taking my driving test the week after but I won’t have my passport?! Or will I? Who knows.

So fed up with this. Feeling really down now. I hate this so much!!



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it's not an issue, so don't panic.

The 28-day cut off date is based on the date you submit the online application and pay for the visa. It is not based on biometrics date.

If you have done this today, then you have nothing to worry about, because your latest payslip, bank statement and the employer letter only have to be dated within 28 days of today's date.

The whole application system has changed in the last few months now though and nothing is mailed anymore .

As far as I know, you do not need to part with your passport, as I believe you now upload a copy of it instead, but you do take it to the biometrics anyway (if you did still mail everything, you would have been without your passport for up to 2 months)

You now:
- scan and upload all your documents (or pay for a biometrics appointment where they will scan them for you)
- attend the biometrics appointment (taking your documents with you just in case they need to rescan them)
- wait for the visa to be processed

As far as I know, you do not need to part with your passport, as I believe you now upload a copy of it instead, but you do take it to the biometrics anyway (if you did still mail everything, you would have been without your passport for up to 2 months)

I'm assuming that the process for FLR(M) for the appointment will basically be the same in this new process as the ILR and Naturalisation and, just to confirm, that'll mean you'll get to keep your passport but YES, you will need to bring it to the biometrics appointment. They scan it prior to sending off the application formally. It's the only document that you're guaranteed to have them look at during the appointment (even though they advise to take the hard copies of all your documents "just in case"), but you get to leave with it so you won't have to worry about being without it.

Thought I'd just confirm that.

it's not an issue, so don't panic.

The 28-day cut off date is based on the date you submit the online application and pay for the visa. It is not based on biometrics date.

If you have done this today, then you have nothing to worry about, because your latest payslip, bank statement and the employer letter only have to be dated within 28 days of today's date.

The whole application system has changed in the last few months now though and nothing is mailed anymore .

As far as I know, you do not need to part with your passport, as I believe you now upload a copy of it instead, but you do take it to the biometrics anyway (if you did still mail everything, you would have been without your passport for up to 2 months)

You now:
- scan and upload all your documents (or pay for a biometrics appointment where they will scan them for you)
- attend the biometrics appointment (taking your documents with you just in case they need to rescan them)
- wait for the visa to be processed

Ahh okay so if I’ve got this right, all I have to do now is wait until my appointment and because I paid the extra fee I just have to show up with all my documents and they’ll scan it for me. So I’m basically done right? Ugh stress! Thanks for your help!


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Ahh okay so if I’ve got this right, all I have to do now is wait until my appointment and because I paid the extra fee I just have to show up with all my documents and they’ll scan it for me. So I’m basically done right? Ugh stress! Thanks for your help!


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It depends on what you paid for...

If the £125 was just the appointment fee, there's a strong chance that the fee was because you've booked what is considered an "out of hours" appointment (and the fee will have appeared to have gone up compared to what it used to be). There are free appointments but this might've been the first ones showing up and they might be taking place on week days either at 8 or 9 in the morning or later in the afternoon/evening or any time over a weekend. This is literally just the appointment so it will not include scanning services. If you paid for additional services when you booked your appointment, you may have paid for them to scan your documents for you.

Can you say exactly what it says you've paid for?

Just to follow up as well, there are "core centres", "premium lounge", and "enhanced service points" (see like for Sopra Steria here which also highlights the "out of hours" timings : https://www.soprasteria.com/docs/librariesprovider41/ukvi/ukvi-app-services.pdf )

Not sure of what an "enhanced appointment" is though...Is it called Super Priority? This might be something offered for only FLR(M) though and I only used this new process for my ILR and Naturalisation (both of the biometrics worked the same but I can't say if it's the same or different for FLR-M too).

**EDITED TO ADD** : The document check and scanning might be included at Enhanced centres based on the description given here (https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/help-support/ourinfo/bookAppointment) on Sopra Steria's website but, again, it's still not clear. Hopefully you can post exactly what you paid for as you should have this information confirmed for you by Sopra Steria.

Oh god now I’m even more confused haha! Yes you’re right it is out of hours (Saturday) but it won’t let me purchase extras - the button for that is greyed out

But on their site it said an enhanced appointment is 125....

My invoice says “normal appointment” so no idea!




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Oh god now I’m even more confused haha! Yes you’re right it is out of hours (Saturday) but it won’t let me purchase extras - the button for that is greyed out

But on their site it said an enhanced appointment is 125....

My invoice says “normal appointment” so no idea!




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It won't let you buy any services now as it'll be too late. You need to buy them when you pay for the appointment and can't do it after the fact (at least you couldn't previously when I used Sopra Steria last in May). As it says "normal appointment", however, I think you've probably just paid for a normal appointment with no additional services on top and the reason you paid was because it was an enhanced centre during "out of hours" time. if you want to make extra sure, however, email them to double check. When I last had to email them before booking an appointment, they were very quick to respond. You could just email them to ask if a "normal appointment" at an enhanced centre comes with any additional services or not.

I would just assume, however, it doesn't and would prepare to do the uploading yourself.

Here’s another receipt




Below is their site that says £125




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I still think that that it's just going to be for a normal appointment (and that the enhanced centre just gave you the option to pay for more "enhanced" services), but I honestly can't say for certain. Hopefully somebody else with first hand experience can clarify or if you email them, they can confirm. The other option is to try to look at the "manage appointment" option that it links you to on the screenshot you sent.

I still think that that it's just going to be for a normal appointment (and that the enhanced centre just gave you the option to pay for more "enhanced" services), but I honestly can't say for certain. Hopefully somebody else with first hand experience can clarify or if you email them, they can confirm. The other option is to try to look at the "manage appointment" option that it links you to on the screenshot you sent.

Oh god! No way am I scanning all of that, I have so much!

Is it worth cancelling and booking again? I’ve emailed them to see if I can upgrade. I don’t want to ring cause it’s £2.50 per minute lol. Ughhhhh!


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Oh god! No way am I scanning all of that, I have so much!

Is it worth cancelling and booking again? I’ve emailed them to see if I can upgrade. I don’t want to ring cause it’s £2.50 per minute lol. Ughhhhh!


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You don't have to ring....as I've already mentioned, you can email (for free) and they actually respond quite quickly from my experience.

It's up to you. If the £125 cost is ONLY for the appointment, you'll be paying even more for the scanning. It's up to if that's worth it for you. For me, it wasn't worth it to pay somebody else to do what I could easily do (it's time consuming and monotonous, but still - essentially- easy). As you've got 3 weeks until your appointment, you could aim to scan a few documents a day and you'll have it done in time without spending too much time and effort in one go doing it (you can upload all the way up to the morning of the appointment but I'd aim for the night before just to be safe). That's just my personal opinion. If you have the money to spend and find that it would be worth it for you to have somebody else do it, then consider cancelling and rebooking if that is an option. You have to do what will work best for you.

 Alternatively, perhaps you could email them and ask if there is a way to pay for that additional service to avoid cancelling and rebooking.

I’ve emailed first to find out. I think if I cancel I have to wait 14 days before I can book another one? If I’m reading that right....

Thanks for your help! I would scan them but the one we have at home is archaic. It would take me years


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I’ve emailed first to find out. I think if I cancel I have to wait 14 days before I can book another one? If I’m reading that right....

Thanks for your help! I would scan them but the one we have at home is archaic. It would take me years


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Hopefully they can just add the service if that's what you're wanting without needing to cancel and rebook. I'm not sure if you have to wait 14 days (i'm more inclined to believe that the 14 days is maybe the time period for refunds but you should be able to re-book ahead of the refund - however you might be right and I've just never tried it so have no clue!). Hopefully they'll email you back within the next day or two with a helpful answer

If you or your partner (not sure of your situation as I've not looked at your post history so apologies in advance) has access to a scanner at work, could you try doing some of the scanning at work? Or maybe take turns using the one you have at home? There are apps you can download on your phone as well that you can use to scan to PDF.

Hopefully they can just add the service if that's what you're wanting without needing to cancel and rebook. I'm not sure if you have to wait 14 days (i'm more inclined to believe that the 14 days is maybe the time period for refunds but you should be able to re-book ahead of the refund - however you might be right and I've just never tried it so have no clue!). Hopefully they'll email you back within the next day or two with a helpful answer

If you or your partner (not sure of your situation as I've not looked at your post history so apologies in advance) has access to a scanner at work, could you try doing some of the scanning at work? Or maybe take turns using the one you have at home? There are apps you can download on your phone as well that you can use to scan to PDF.

Yes will wait to hear what they have to say. Fingers crossed!

It’s so weird because last time they were so big on having original bank statements and original letters, no copies, blah blah blah. And now, they’re literally making copies

Ahh well, first time for everything and now I know! Thank you! I’ll let you know what they say!

Sadly can’t at work but to be fair it’s probably cheaper to buy a new scanner than it is to buy the service haha! I’ll look into the apps too. I think there is one called TinyScanner that people use.


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